Three trends shopper marketers should watch out for in 2019

Last year, total sales in the CPG category grew 2.6% year-over-year, with digital CPG sales increasing by nearly 30%. The new year presents new opportunities and continued growth for the CPG industry. To capitalize on these new opportunities and get far greater impact and return from your marketing spend, Shopper Marketers need to keep up with the changing behavior of their 2019 shopper. Understanding who to reach, and where, when and how to reach them will set you up for business success in 2019 and beyond.

To understand this, we’ll begin by looking at 3 key trend predictions for the year, all of which will significantly contribute to the $600b+ CPG market. While some of the trends outlined aren’t exactly new, they will be used both in larger numbers and to greater effect as technology continues to improve and Shopper Marketing strategies evolve.

Here’s a look at three key trends that will shape the CPG industry in 2019.

#1. WHERE: The Omnichannel Opportunity

The 2019 shopper will be more connected than ever. This connected consumer demands convenience across each stage of their purchase journey, which has been revolutionized by e-commerce. FMI & Nielsen research predict that by 2024, 70% of consumers will be grocery shopping online, which is almost double what it is today. Despite this growth in online grocery shopping, the biggest opportunity remains the physical store. So why would shoppers choose to brave the crowded aisles when they can buy what they need from the comfort of their couch? Cost. In fact, 51% of US consumers said they wouldn’t pay extra for grocery delivery.

Enter, Online Grocery Pickup (OGP). The convenience of buying online and the experience and cost saving of collecting in-store has created massive opportunities for Shopper Marketers, which won’t be slowing down anytime soon. From 2016 to now, shoppers who bought groceries online and collected them in-store has increased nearly 250%. OGP presents a rare opportunity to bridge the omnichannel gap between e-commerce and retail, and the device used to facilitate this journey is mobile.

As these shoppers will go from online to offline, and back again, understanding the mobile user journey of your OGP shopper will enable Shopper Marketers to capture the grocery moment in 2019 and make smarter marketing spend decisions.

#2. WHEN: The early bird gets the worm

 

Now I’ve outlined where consumers will be shopping (both online and offline), let’s take a look at WHEN they will be shopping. Spoiler, they’re early birds. Traditionally, seasonal events have been critical windows for Shopper Marketers. From candy purchases over Easter and Valentine’s Day, to party supplies over the holiday period, seasonality is key. This will remain the same in 2019, but Shopper Marketers will need to ensure they reach their shoppers with messaging earlier than previously planned.

Let’s take a look at the recent holiday season. Black Friday has typically been the kick-off to the holiday shopping period, but due to the convenience and connectivity of mobile, people now start researching and shopping for holiday purchases much earlier than Black Friday. Valassis revealed that last year, 40% of shoppers used Amazon’s Prime Day to shop for the holiday season. Ogury’s proprietary first-party mobile user journey data revealed that it wasn’t only Amazon that these shoppers engaged with. In fact, daily active app users increased significantly across various retail apps including Walmart, who had more active users than Amazon on their own Prime Day.

It’s not only the holiday season where shoppers were extra eager. Ogury’s data also revealed that last February, mobile users were most active on CPG retailer apps one week before Valentine’s Day, and active cleaning app users increased by 413% on the first day of Spring, as people planned to begin their Spring cleaning early on in the season. Based on this data, Shopper Marketers need to ensure their 2019 seasonal campaigns focus on the days leading up to different events, as CPG shoppers begin their purchase journey earlier than ever.

#3. HOW: It’s not all about location, location, location

 

Now we understand WHERE and WHEN CPG shoppers will be on their path to purchase, let’s look at HOW to reach them – or better yet, how not to. More often than not, Shopper Marketers rely on geo-location data coupled with broad third-party segments to understand their audience and drive them to store. With the newly introduced privacy laws and misuse of consumer data that occurred last year, data privacy is at the forefront of marketers minds.

In fact, a survey by Demandbase and Demand Metric found that four in five respondents were concerned their tech vendors could put them at risk of violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These European data privacy laws cause concern for US Shopper Marketers, with close to a third of US marketers expecting GDPR to impact their audience targeting capabilities with third-party data.

Using location technology is helpful when getting an idea of your shopper’s physical movements, but risky when coupled with third-party segments to build audiences. To truly understand their entire journey in a safe and compliant way, Shopper Marketers need a comprehensive understanding of their total shopper view, which can only be achieved when you have visibility to their complete mobile user journey. Ensure you only leverage data that understands and identifies individual humans and doesn’t rely on broad segments, and reach your shoppers where they spend their time, which is everywhere – from online to offline. Mobile can connect the dots, if you know how.

These three key trends highlight where, when and how, but what about WHO? As human behavior isn’t an exact science, and not all shoppers are the same, understanding the entire mobile user journey will reveal who you need to reach. Engaging the user across each stage of their purchase journey will better allow you to connect with the human behind the screen, to ultimately influence their buying decisions. Built on first-party GDPR compliant mobile user journey data, Ogury’s Mobile Journey Marketing (MJM) solutions provide the first fully integrated consent, data, insight, and activation solution, enabling Shopper Marketers to reach the right person, where, when and how it matters most.

If you would like to learn more about how this can be applied to your organization, please contact me directly: drew@ogury.com 

Drew Childers, VP Midwest Region